•Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to My HCG Journey - Blog
•Click here to JOIN the My HCG Journey Newsletter and here to see the September, 2008 Issue!
•Click here to join in on the fun at the My HCG Journey Community Forums!

R5P2C4 Starting Weight 150.6
Yesterday – 146.6
Today – 145.6
1.0 lb LOSS Overnight
2.6 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 3 (148.2)
5.0 lb Lost Since Start of R5C4 (VLCD) 09/02/08
105.2 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Another good day.  I was looking over my numbers, like I usually do in the morning, and I started to get just a tad down on the percentage, as you know that is something that I look at all the time.  But this is the first break I have taken that I didn’t gain massive amounts of weight to lose quickly so my numbers are not meeting up to the past.  Once I figured that out, I felt better.  Yup!  I am 5 lbs down so far on day 5 - not too shabby, that is 1.25 lost per day - and I am no longer playing catchup, this is all virgin territory!  GOTTA LOVE IT!

My menu for yesterday is here:

• Coffee with 2% Milk
• Cottage Cheese and Blueberries
• Tuna with 1 T Light Mayo, Mustard, SF Relish and Lettuce - Chopped hard boiled egg
• One of the 48 Calorie Shakes - recipe to follow sometime next week!

UPDATE ON HANNA:  It was pretty nerve racking last night, the winds were howling and the rain was pelting - but we made it through unscathed.  Thank you everyone for your concern - things have indeed worked out for the best.

Support

Whenever we deal with anything in our lives, it really helps if we surround ourselves with people that share the same values, goals, passions, ambitions and beliefs.  This is even more important when a very focused part of our lives, changing the way we eat to lose weight, comes into play.  Just like anything else in life, we can do this by ourselves, but when we do it with a group of people that share our ideals and direction, well then, it makes the journey much more enjoyable.

I knew early on with the HCG Journey to Weight Loss that I was about to embark on that I was going to need a strong support group to help me with my journey.  In the beginning, I chose the HCG DIeters group over at Yahoo Groups, because back then, they seemed to have the most knowledge and were very true to the protocol - which as you all well know, was the purist attitude I maintained during most of my journey.

One thing lead to another, and I found myself becoming part of a support team that to me is unbreakable.  I went from the original group, to another YahooGroup (HCG2) to an online support forum (that was actually more my cup of tea format wise) to what you see now available at My HCG Journey Community Forums - and all along the way, I have surrounded myself with little pieces of the puzzle that pretty much created the team of members that I call my ROCK with this protocol.

Creating a Core Support Group

To create a support group, two things have to take place.  First, the important aspects of you, what makes you tick, what your passions are and what your needs are, they need to be rock solid in your own mind - in other words, you need to know what you want in order to know how to ask for it.  Then you have to give them reasons to want to support you - most importantly realizing that this is a two way street.  You must also GIVE support in order to GET support.

Your should surround yourself with a team that handles things you do not excel at, so that they too can fit into the puzzle - one person should never be greater than the next, it should all work like a well oiled machine so that as one, the goals of the GROUP can be realized.  Then you have something you can work with that can accomplish ALL your goals.

The team I have surrounded myself with, they fulfill different needs in my journey, which I am hoping that I do the same in return for them (they tell me I do anyhoo) and in so doing, I have seen 3 of the core group of 6 that I surround myself with already reaching goal, and maintaining nicely I might add.  Their reaching goal while on this HCG Journey while I am a part of their lives has given me more motivation than you can ever imagine.

Extending That Group

In My HCG Journey, I have come across literally THOUSANDS of like minded individuals that have shared the same goals, desires, ambitions, beliefs and so on (in regards to the HCG Protocol).  Some are around for just a moment, others hang for the time frame that it takes them to lose their weight, and still others flutter in and out of my life, but each time I have a moment in life with one of these individuals, I deem it a privilege to have shared in this journey with them.  I cannot tell you how exciting it is to see an email from someone that I have been in contact with along the way that I haven’t heard from in a while drop me a line to tell me how they are doing.

All This to Say…

Thank you for being a part of my support group.  I truly believe that I couldn’t have done it without each piece of the puzzle you all have provided being here to help along the way.  I am here, here for the duration, here to help in any way I can to share this miracle with anyone who will listen.

•Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to My HCG Journey - Blog
•Click here to JOIN the My HCG Journey Newsletter and here to see the September, 2008 Issue!
•Click here to join in on the fun at the My HCG Journey Community Forums!

R5P2C4 Starting Weight 150.6
Yesterday – 147.0
Today – 146.6
0.4 lb LOSS Overnight
1.6 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 3 (148.2)
4.0 Lost Since Start of R5C4 (VLCD) 09/02/08
104.2 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Not too bad.  I had some soup yesterday, and although I usually make it with a low sodium chicken broth, all I had available was Bouillon Cubes and so I have a feeling my loss was not as good because of the sodium.  UGH - peeing like crazy today, so I know I am getting rid of the excess - no worries.  Also, TOM is vicious, once again.  UGH!

My Goals

I thought I would go ahead and talk about my goals for finishing protocol - as I am coming up to it pretty darn quickly.  I don’t know when the HCG will tell me to stop, but I know where I don’t want to be, and that is anywhere where it’s not considered “Normal” or “Average” - I want to go until the HCG tells me to stop, but I don’t want to go crazy either.

As of today, at my weight and my height, I am still considered “Overweight” by the BMI charts - my number one goal for protocol has always been to get UNDER the overweight BMI as I want to be able to get life and health insurance and have no issues in doing it.

I don’t want to be SUPER SKINNY - I don’t like that look and I know it wont work for me.  But I do want to be “average” whatever that means.  I figure that the BMI charts say that “Normal” BMI for a woman is 18.5 - 24.9 - so to be “average” I am thinking I need to be at 22 BMI - that means my weight would be exactly at 128 - which actually sounds about right, as I remember being 130 all thru high school - I had a killer bod, I ran every other day for exercise and I looked good.  I didn’t think so back then cause I had an anorexic friend that I would always compare myself to, but now I know what was realistic for ME - so my goal right now is 128 - but as we all know, that is subject to change.

My first goal was 150 lbs, because quite frankly, I never thought while I was at 250 lbs, I would ever get to 150 so that was the first number I picked.  Now when I look at things a bit more closely and I am now UNDER 150 lbs, and I see some stuff that still needs worked on, my next ‘arbitrary goal’ will be 128 - when I get there I will again assess things and see what I should do again.

So hopefully, during THIS cycle, I will be able to get to my goal of 138 - so that I only have another 10 lbs to get to 128 - two cycles to be done by the time I am “supposed” to go to Hawaii.  We shall see, everything is up in the air at the moment.  And I do want to be on a reasonable place when I go to Hawaii, but I know I will have to go straight back on P2 when I get home from there!  LOL

Hanna is on her way - no rest for the weary.  They had called last night to tell us that baby girl had early dismissal today for school (90 minutes early), and then this morning at 8:30 they called and said that early dismissal changed to only a half day, so I had to go and pick her up - the weather is going down hill right now, and we have decided to bunker down here at our home.  We said we would leave if it’s a hurricane, well it’s not, and so we are staying put.

But, as they say, it’s not over till the fat lady sings.  And IKE is right behind this one, so we are still watching things closely.  Keep us in your thoughts.

My Menu

• Coffee with 2% Milk
• Catfish with a can of green beans cooked in tomato sauce (all no salt added)
• Tomato chicken soup with a cube of chicken bullion with broccoli and tomato sauce.

You can see a copy of my FitDay here for the calorie counts.

Have a great day!  By the way?  Thanks to all of you that have welcomed me back with your comments, I have not been ignorning you, it’s just taking everything I have to update - I will get back to normal after this weekend has passed.

Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to My HCG Journey - Blog

R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday - 168.0
Today - 168.4
0.4 lb GAIN Overnight
6.4 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
8.4 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
82.4 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Oops, it’s in the wrong direction - but as my title shows, Aunt Flo came a calling during the night and I woke up with a small gain. So that must be it, it couldn’t have been what I ate yesterday could it?

Ok, EweWho is gonna crack up at me, cause I told her last night, shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I deviated at a get together yesterday. And she says, Biz, I wont have to tell on you, you will tell on yourself. How much she knows me!

We had a function to go to after our services yesterday, it was something we were invited to last minute and my family wanted to go, so we went. When I got there, there was a SPREAD that you wouldn’t believe, and all things SOUTHERN. OMG - what was I gonna do? We were invited on Saturday to this function, so I had enough to plan, so I said to myself, I will take a nice large veggie tray, make a dip that was relatively P2 legal and I would have fun with that.

Yesterday morning, I should have just stayed in bed. In retrospect, it was Aunt Flo taking over the day, but yesterday morning I didn’t know that. I went to the store to buy the various veggies, and the power went out in the store while I was there, sign number ONE I should have stayed in bed. Sign number TWO was when I got home and tried to make TWO different veggie dips to take to this thing, and both of them turned out like super ICK. And I consider myself a pretty darn good cook, yet things were NOT coming together. So after our services, we stopped at a store to go ahead and buy a premade dip and take that.

As you can imagine, I was already with “ATTITUDE” when we got there, so when I saw all that NUMMY food, I was like, OMG - I am SO in trouble. Funny how when Aunt Flo is in the house, all will power is thrown on the window. Again, if I would have KNOWN that Aunt Flo was the culprit, I could have been better prepared MENTALLY. As it stands, I started wrestling with my thoughts. Hmm, look at this great week I just had, I can afford to eat some of this and some of that with no issues. Let me tell you the menu:

• Collards
• Cornbread (one of my weaknesses)
• Beans and Rice (another one of my weaknesses)
• Lasagna
• Waldorf Salad (no nuts, and with sweetener instead of sugar)
• Regular Salad
• Broccoli Chicken Salad (with bacon bits, craisons, sunflower kernels and a dressing)
• Fried Chicken
• Rotisserie Chicken
• Boiled Cabbage
• HOME MADE DESSERTS!

So what did I deviate with? When JPS heard what I ate, she was like, that wasn’t a deviation! LOL - but to me it was. I had like THREE servings of the Waldorf Salad (it had mayo, raisins, cabbage, apples, and sweetener), a few bites of the rotisserie chicken, some boiled cabbage (didn’t eat the ham in it, but could taste the salt) and a BITE of Beans and Rice - literally, just a BITE. But I left EVERYTHING else ALONE. So all in all, I did really well. The Waldorf Salad was SO good I didn’t feel deprived in anyway.

All in all, I probably didn’t have MORE than 500 calories yesterday anyway, because after this function I didn’t eat anything else, just drank my water.

So what does that mean for me today? I am gonna do a modified “egg day” - I bought some Egg Beaters (I know, I know, gross out) and I will have 500 calories worth of this today. I am bound and determined to reach my goal of 16.8 pounds this cycle, so I will do whatever it takes. Now that I know Aunt Flo is in town, I can work my mind correctly.

Just because I gained, does not mean I wont post my percentages. They still make me feel better. So, what are those percentages?

• Round 1 (4 completed days) - 3.35% of body weight lost
• Round 2 (4 completed days) - 3.54% of body weight lost
• Round 3 (4 completed days) - 4.97% of body weight lost
• Round 4 (4 completed days) - 5.64% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (4 completed days) - 4.75% of body weight lost

Ok, so, I am not doing so good this round as my 3rd and 4th round, but I can STILL turn it around!!! At least it’s better than my 1st and 2nd round! ROFL - oh how we justify things when Aunt Flo is in the midst. I will probably feel differently tomorrow. We shall see.

So anyway, that is my day for today. I am on day 7, 6 days complete, 8.4 lbs lost. Still, that ain’t so bad. Have a good one people!

Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to The Progress of Biz

LIW +9.0
Overnight GAIN 0.4

Here is my menu for the day before - this is what I ate:

Breakfast: Coffee with Half and Half, leftover shrimp and broccoli
Lunch: chicken with huge blue cheese topped salad with blue cheese dressing
Dinner: ground chicken, green beans and tomato sauce
Snacks: pepper jack cheese, iced mocha

A total of 1450 cals divided: 78 fat grams (47%), 61 carb grams (12%), 122 protein grams (37%)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Yup, this is the way with Atkin’s Induction - it’s up and down, up and down. I was chatting with a fellow HCG’r yesterday telling her that I was so not prepared to do Atkins Induction this week. I had none of the supplies needed to complete this program. Not nearly enough “fatty” foods to up my calories since I am not eating hardly any carbs.

My calories were low yesterday, yet I stuffed my face. I also spent a good hour outside (finally a GLORIOUS day to work outside) doing yard work and was very sore and tired when done. One more thing is that I ate late (around 7pm) and I ate WAY too many carbs for induction. But I insisted I wanted green beans with tomato sauce. Oh yeah, one more thing, TOM is still here!

So if you ask me, I am not worried about the temporary gain. It will come off. I am one of those that loses as TOM leaves the building, not while he is here.

I am running late again today folks, I don’t know what it is, but I seem to be finally catching up on some much needed sleep. Have a great day!

On to my commenter’s - these are my responses to yesterday’s comments:

Mary - Thanks girl!

Becca - Thanks to you girl!

Shelly - Thanks!

B - It’s worth a read if you have time, it’s a pretty healthy way of eating. Very similar to Dr Simeons.

Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to The Progress of Biz

LIW +8.6
Overnight LOSS 0.8

Here is my menu for the day before - this is what I ate:

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs in EVCO, some cheese and bacon bits thrown on top
Lunch: two ginormous pork chops (I snacked on these during the day)
Dinner: shrimp and broccoli from the Chinese Fast Food place (just steamed)
Snacks: coconut bark and pepper jack cheese, a full tomato with EVOO and balsamic and blue cheese

A total of 1823 cals divided: 135 fat grams (66%), 29 carb grams (6%), 124 protein grams (28%)

Just the Stats

I only have time for the stats this morning. Was flat on my back almost all day yesterday because TOM was ruthless, so I gotta get started early with the stuff I neglected to do yesterday, in other words, play catchup.

Thank you all for the really comforting words helping me thru my ‘time’ yesterday, it’s such a joy to know I am not the only one that has to suffer! ROFL

If you haven’t figured out by now I have decided, since I have the time, to do a strict week of Atkins Induction and see how far that might bring me down. So my goal until Monday is to go 20 net carbs or less. So far so good.

On to my commenter’s - these are my responses to yesterday’s comments:

Shelly - feeling better today! Charleston is a great place to live, I do really like it here. I am a beach girl so being this close is just wonderful!

Mary - I did, I pretty much laid flat on my back with my trusty heating pad and loved every minute of it. But today is back to the grindstone!

Jan - Oh yeah, down goes the weight!

Becca - I can at least FOCUS now that TOM has made his appearance. Geesh, it was messing with my mind BIG time!

B - yeah, it got pretty bad yesterday, but I am like a new person today! YEAH!

Liz - I wish I would have seen that yesterday about the lotion, I needed SOMETHING!